St. Thomas

My family (mom, dad, sister) and Brian & I decided to spend Thanksgiving in St. Thomas this year! It was beautiful and wonderful. I LOVE to vacation with my family because they have the same "vacation style" that I do--> we like to lay out on the beach ALL day, eat out for almost every meal, watch movies while eating dessert on the sofa, and play board games. We throw in an occasional site-seeing something or other, but for the most part we are all low-key.

arriving in St. Thomas

St. Thomas was GORGEOUS! Brian and I have been to our share of tropical locations (St. Lucia for our honeymoon, Punta Cana for our 1.5 year anniversary trip, and we have also gone on separate cruises to Jamaica, Bahamas, Cocoa Beach, St. Maarten, and St. Croix) in the past. Each island has something different to offer but really in the end they all have white sand and clear waters. Don't worry about ever taking me on a skiing trip or to a cabin in the mountains... just take me to an island, really anything that starts with "St." and I'm set.

view from our condo
our condo

We truly ate our way through the island... we ate at Havana Blue one night which was featured in Gourmet magazine. It was such a cool atmosphere, very posh with blue lighting, on the ocean, all open air, candlelight, awesome bar (although I didn't partake), and amazing food. On Thanksgiving night we ate at Banana Tree Grille. Brian and my mom opted for the traditional Thanksgiving food (turkey, stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, sauteed squash, etc) but I got filet and fried onion strings (I blame all my random food choices on the baby). We ate dinner at Room with a View and had the BEST waiter who kept us laughing all night long. I could truly talk about food for 5 more paragraphs, but I'll end it there.

Banana Tree Grille
Havana Blue

We spent our days on the most beautiful beaches you can imagine. Magens Bay is rated top 10 beaches in the world so of course we had to check that out. We spent a day each at Coki Point Beach, Morning Star, and Magens Bay. While at Coki Point Beach, we went snorkeling out in the ocean where we saw rocky reef and beautiful fish we could feed. We took a ferry over to St. John for a day and hung out at Trunk Bay. The waves were HUGE - Brian and I took full advantage of the body surfing of course. Baby Hake loved it!

This was an AWESOME trip! Brian and I are SO grateful to my parents for taking us. This was our last little getaway before Baby Hake arrives. I have a feeling our family trips will be a bit more like Disney World than St. Thomas in the near future :)

Hilton Head Island... typical

We took our annual family vacation to Hilton Head Island. I have been vacationing here with my family since I was a tiny tot and really love it. Brian has come with my family for the past 3-4 years. We had a lot of fun this summer and discovered some new restaurants. Let's be honest, going to the beach is all about laying out and eating. Two of my favorite things. If you travel to HHI, you must eat at my top 2: Red Fish & Tapas. We spent most of our nights either watching movies or playing games--> Apples to Apples, Loaded Questions, Mexican Train, Bananagrams, etc. We LOVE games and I love that my family plays together. Here are some pics from our trip...

dinner at Crazy Crab - my least favorite... a little too "kid-friendly"

Red Fish - one of our top 2 favorites on the island
Tapas - our new discovery this year...
I love my family.
Chart House... formerly known as Charlie's
Kiki and Gwen

xoxo

Girls Weekend in Bham

I just had a lovely weekend in Bham with my mom (Carolyn) and Brian's mom (JoAnne). It is always SO nice to get away for some R&R with the girls. Our weekend consisted of all of my favorite things...
*ate Ocarrs for lunch
*saw the movie "Date Night" - so funny!
*dinner at Cocina--> Mojitos!!!!
*overnight at Renaissance Ross Bridge
*massage in the morning
*brunch at Jackson's

Renaissance at Ross Bridge
view from our rooms

if I were on death row, this would be my last meal

Carolyn, me, JoAnne @ Cocina

Upcoming Trips

We are SO excited about our upcoming trips! In a few weeks, we are going to Hilton Head Island with my (Ellen's) family for a week. My family goes here every year and we have our usual favorite spots - Red Fish, Salty Dog, and of course the beach! Although, I must be honest. I don't get in the ocean. Sad I know. But I am VERY afraid of what is out there. I was stung by a jellyfish when I was a child and since then I have seen every scary ocean movie out there so I am officially terrified of sharks. So needless to say, I keep my distance. I will put my feet in, but that's about it. Hopefully that'll change once we have kids. I would hate to pass down my "issues" like that to our children. YIKES!

Anyway, back to the trip. We are very excited about HHI this year, but also nervous at the same time. This will be the first time we are leaving Penny and we are very sad about it. In fact, I'm not sure who will be more sad - Penny or us. We have hired a girl from the vet to come and stay with her at our house for the week. She is a very sweet girl and obviously loves dogs, but it is SO hard to leave your baby for the first time. And for a week nonetheless.

Naturally, I have typed up a 2 page list of "things to know about Penny" for her. Naturally.

Now onto our next trip for 2010. Toward the end of June, one of our best friends, Miss Chelsea C., will be getting hitched in St. Simons. SUCH a fun destination wedding! She will no doubt make a beautiful bride. All of my best college friends (The Fab 5) will be there. Some with husbands. Some with babies. Crazy times.

Next trip is another wedding. Obviously it is wedding season. My cousin, Miss Anna N., is the next to get hitched. She is marrying the most wonderful guy (besides Brian of course) and we couldn't be happier for her. Their wedding is in July in Augusta, Georgia. Oh and I am bridesmaid in both weddings YIKES!

And our final trip for 2010 (thank goodness b/c I am getting tired just thinking about the packing and unpacking!) will be to St. Thomas with my family!!! We are taking the week of Thanksgiving and going to this gorgeous island. My parents have rented a villa for the 5 of us (mom, dad, sister, B, and me). I am SO excited to go somewhere exotic and far away!!!

patio view from villa :)

So obviously, I will be doing a LOT of packing and unpacking over the next few months. I LOVE to travel, but I am not a fan of packing and unpacking. I dread it with each trip. I feel prepared for our upcoming trips, there are just 2 things that I think I'll need to purchase between now and then...

We have a fabulous digital camera, but it's just not "cutting it" anymore. It's great if the subject is sitting completely still and is willing to hold the pose for 3-5 seconds. We are in need of a nice Digital SLR, especially now that we have Penny and you gotta know the girl will not hold a pose for 3-5 seconds. And then for when we have children, it will definitely come in handy. Brian really wants a DSLR for St. Thomas.

I, like every girl, have 42301 bathing suits. But alas, it is never enough. I am on the hunt for a cute new bathing suit for my 2010 summer wardrobe. This year I am wanting a ruffle bandeau. So I'm keeping my eyes out for one!

1.5 Years and Counting...

We are so random. Like I mentioned in a previous blog, we like to celebrate our love anytime we can. We decided to take a trip to celebrate our 1.5 Year Wedding Anniversary. We stayed at a Dreams Resort in Punta Cana. The weather was BEAUTIFUL almost every single day. We were there for 4 nights, 5 days. If someone asked us to rate the food overall we would give it a 7 out of 10... not the best, but not the worst. Although we went to some restaurants that were a definite 10. It's sad, but we really do rate all of our food, whether we cook it here at home or are out at a restaurant. It just helps us keep up with our likes and dislikes. This resort was really fun and I think it would have been great for a big group of girls, like a fun Bachelorette party or something. It was a little too "wild" for us. Ask us that about 4-5 years ago and we would say differently. But I dunno, something about once you get married, you just settle down a little more. It's nice to be on this side of things though. We had tons of fun just us. We ate a different restaurant for every meal every day. We hung out on the beach, reading magazines or just talking. We spent time at the swim-up bar in the pool ordering different tropical drinks. We even got to play with a monkey. It was SO fun and the monkey was adorable (see pics below). It's hard to go on a trip like this after our A+ honeymoon in St. Lucia, because I think we will forever be comparing EVERY trip from here on out to that. St. Lucia was a 10 out of 10. Punta Cana was an 8 out of 10. We had a wonderful time, don't get me wrong! It is always nice to get away, not have to work, and not have to worry about anything. And of course, just be together...

our fantastic resort - Dreams Punta Cana

hanging out on the beautiful beaches of Punta Cana

dinner at Bordeaux, a French restaurant

Paradise... we spent a lot of time here. Either sitting pool side or at the wonderful swim-up bar.

taking some photos before dinner at Himitsu (hibachi grill)

My dream officially came true... I got to play with a monkey. I mean I've only asked for one EVERY Christmas since about age 5.His name was JJ and he was SO darn cute! We tried to sneak him back in our pocket but apparently that is frowned upon.

Our last night in Punta Cana... eating dinner at Portofino

Anniversaries 0.6 and 1

We love to celebrate. Anything. Anytime. Our first anniversary we celebrated was our 6 month wedding anniversary. September 2008, Brian "kidnapped" me over the weekend and took me on a little trip. We ended up at the Ritz Carlton - same place we spent our first night after our wedding. He got us a suite with the most comfortable bed you can imagine. To top off the already wonderful surprise, he took me out to Ruth's Chris for dinner. We officially became the people we hate while dining... same side sitters. You can't help it when you're in love.

We returned to our room after dinner and there were pink rose petals sprinkled all over our bed, champagne, and chocolate dipped strawberries. It was like our honeymoon all over again. The next morning, Brian had 2 massage therapists come up to our room to give us a rub down. We just had to roll out of bed... it was glorious! I give Brian major props for putting this romantic weekend together for me :)

Then came our 1 year anniversary... It's SO hard to believe that a year has already flown by. It has been so wonderful. We feel like everyone was always telling us that the first year is the hardest and most difficult, but we must be very lucky and blessed because it was pretty good for us. We had our "tough moments" here and there, but overall it was really great. We had a lot to be celebrating just one year later.

We actually renewed our wedding vows. We went back to Peachtree Christian Church, where we were married just one year ago. The second Sunday of every January, PCC invites back every couple who has EVER been married inside their church to renew their vows. Four couples got to actually walk down the aisle, which of course I was jealous of. But the rest of us, got to sit in pews, turn to our husband/wife, hold their hands, and repeat our vows to each other out loud. And then seal it with a kiss :)

It was the sweetest thing in the world. Brian and I are going to make it a tradition to back every year to renew our vows.

On March 8, 2009, we set the table with our fine china and crystal. We ate a delicious dinner of filet, baked potatoes, and asparagus. YUM! And of course, we ate our wedding cake. It was the exact same. Delicious and perfect.

Then we watched our wedding video from start to finish. It was 3 hours long. Beautiful video, but let's just say we'll only be watching it on special occasions. And to top the night all off, we had a bottle of champagne and drank it out of our toasting flutes from the wedding. I can't believe it has already been one year. We are so lucky to have each other!!!

We went to Asheville, NC for our actual one year anniversary trip. We ate lunch at Moose Cafe (ranked #10 in the South) and then we went to the Biltmore!

We stayed at The Inn at Biltmore. Our room was gorgeous. They upgraded us to a King Suite because we were celebrating our anniversary. Gotta love those upgrades!

We ate dinner at The Bistro on the first night. The next morning we walked around the beautiful gardens. We picked a great month to go, it was The Festival of the Flowers. Then we went to The Biltmore and did an audio tour of the house. But let's be honest, we both fast forwarded through our tapes and tried to pass the slow walkers. Then we ate lunch at Stable Cafe. That afternoon we toured the winery and enjoyed a wine tasting!

Our last night at The Biltmore, we ate our "official" anniversary dinner at The Dining Room.

XOXO

Our Honeymoon in St. Lucia

So I'm trying to update everyone on the first few years of our lives together as husband and wife and so far in my first post alone, I've only covered our wedding. YIKES! And in this current post, I'll only be covering our first week of marriage. I promise the rest of our posts will cover more time in our lives. It's just hard to sum up the past few years of your life!!

So after our amazing wedding, we spent a week in St. Lucia for our honeymoon...

It was a 1.5 hour drive from the airport to our resort, so we stopped a few times to take some pictures & look at the gorgeous scenery...

When we arrived at our resort (Sandals Grande), we were greeted by our butler. Yes, that's right, our butler. Sweet precious Brian surprised me and got us our own butler for the entire week! Keisha (our butler) escorted us to our rondoval, which we had been upgraded to. Keisha popped a bottle of champagne for us to sip on as she gave us a tour of our rondoval.
We were on Cloud 9 for the rest of the trip!

Our rondoval was super swanky! We had our own private pool and hot tub in our backyard. There was an outdoor shower, a hammock to relax in, and a breakfast table. It was truly paradise!

Keisha did everything for us. She unpacked our bags, escorted us to dinners, brought us drinks on the beach, and drew bubble baths for us.

Keisha served us a special dinner in our room. She served us our favorite appetizers and entrees from all the restaurants on the resort. She lit candles and even put on a romantic CD (it was Jamaican music of course, but still so sweet).

Here we are at our reserved spot on the beach. Keisha brought us drinks and fresh fruit. I tell you it was TRULY paradise!

There were so many delicious restaurant choices on the resort. Keisha would escort us to dinner every night and when we returned to our rondoval, she always had a special surprise waiting for us... she would sprinkle roses all over the floor leading out to our hot tub (or jacuzzi in the room or on the bed, etc.)... complete with champagne, desserts, candles, and cigars. So romantic!

One night we went on the "Evening Party Cruise." There were only 15 other couples on the boat with us - it was wonderful. We were served appetizers and drinks. We were able to see the most beautiful sunset we had ever seen!

All of our bags are packed and we are NOT ready to go!

Our honeymoon in St. Lucia was nothing short of fabulous. St. Lucia was beautiful and we were truly blessed to have such a wonderful experience. We hope that we can go back to Sandals Grande for our 10-year anniversary (although I'm trying to convince Brian to make it 5-year!).

After we returned from a week in paradise, it was back to "reality" and "real life" set in. We both had to go back to work... Brian went back to Prudential and I went back to nannying Lydie. It was hard getting back into the groove of work and the real world, but being together made it all worthwhile!!